WORLD PREMIERE OF CONNECTOME, A NEW ONE ACT BALLET BY

ALASTAIR MARRIOTT,

ALONGSIDE TWO CLASSICS BY FREDERICK ASHTON AND JEROME ROBBINS

Alastair Marriott, Foto Andrej Uspenski, 2014. As mr. Marriott´s ballet is a world premiere, May 31th, we have not yet photos, But we have a good portrait of Alastair Marriott.

LONDON/ GREAT BRITAIN: Alastair Marriott’snew work Connectome receives its world premiere as the centrepiece of this final programme of the Royal Ballet Season surrounded by two light-hearted classics; Frederick Ashton’s The Dream, his celebrated interpretation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Jerome Robbin’s gloriously funny The Concert.

Connectome is Marriott’s first commission for The Royal Ballet since Trespass for Metamorphsis: Titian2012, a collaboration with Christopher Wheeldon. This new ballet offers another exciting opportunity to see Marriott’s distinctive and classically inspired choreography. The name of the work describes the comprehensive map of the neural connections in the brain – a ‘wiring diagram’.

With music by the outstanding Estonian composer Arvo Pärt including his ‘Lord’s Prayer’ sung by a boy soprano, the creative talents of award winning designer Es Devlin in her first set design for The Royal Ballet, and an immersive installation by lighting designer Bruno Poet, this new work is much anticipated.Principal dancers Natalia Osipova, Steven McRae and Edward Watson lead the cast and Music Director Barry Wordsworth conducts.

Frederick Ashton’s The Dream premiered in 1964 and this 50th anniversary revival also coincides with the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth.

The Dream captures all the comic confusion of Shakespeare’s play in inventive choreography with the tempestuous Oberon and Titania, the high-spirited misadventures of the two pairs of mortal lovers combining with the humorous cavorting of Bottom, a role famous for putting a male dancer en pointe.

Felix Mendelssohn’s much loved incidental music including the well-known Overture, Scherzo, Nocturne and Wedding March provides a perfect partner to Ashton’s choreography.

Oberon: Steven McRae, photographed in 2012 by Johan Persson

The final work in the programme is Jerome Robbins’s The Concert. A brilliantly funny piece exposing the wandering thoughts and desires of an audience at a Chopinpiano recital, the result is a beautifully crafted spoof of a classical music concert and even of classical ballet itself.

The Concert had its premiere in New York in 1956 and entered the repertory of The Royal Ballet in 1975. Robbins, famous for his Oscar-winning choreography of the original West Side Story, brings his unique and imaginative choreographic flair to this humorous piece.

Generous philanthropic support from Lindsay and Sarah Tomlinson, Celia Blakey and Kristina Rogge (The Dream); Sarah and Lloyd Dorfman and Marina Hobson OBE (Connectome); and The Fonteyn Circle (The Concert)

CASTING

THE DREAM

31 May at 7pm, 5 June at 7.30pm

Oberon: Steven McRae, photo Johan Persson (2012)

Titania Roberta Marquez

Oberon Steven McRae

6 and 12 June at 7.30pm

Titania Natalia Osipova*

Oberon Matthew Golding*

10 and 13 June at 7.30pm

Titania Laura Morera*

Oberon Federico Bonelli*

CONNECTOME

31 May at 7pm, 5, 10, 13 June at 7.30pm

The Dream, The Royal Ballet, The Royal Opera House, 2012Oberon: Steven McRae, Photo Johan Persson